BOOK PRESENTATION: SOCIAL IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE.

Climate change has an anthropogenic origin that is now indisputable. For more than a century, it has been observed that the climate is changing at an unprecedented rate, which has intensified since the Industrial Revolution. The burning of fossil fuels, as well as the unlimited energy demand of developed countries and their consumption habits, have led to the generation of additional emissions of gases that were previously in balance in our climate system. Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide have been disproportionately emitted since the industrial era, which has caused an accelerated change in the climate and, as a consequence, the warming of the Earth. The increase in the average global temperature of the last century is estimated at 1.3 degrees Celsius, an excessive increase when compared to the evolution of temperature in previous centuries.

In this book, I discuss the social impacts that I have considered most relevant when analyzing the consequences that climate change is having on our societies. I have tried to put a face to those areas where human suffering is increasingly evident, providing a realistic, but also critical and personal, perspective. Issues such as poverty, inequality, migration, and conflicts are exacerbated by the impacts of climate variability caused by humans. This presentation will address these issues, with a special focus on the current situation of climate migrants and a description of their unfair legal status.

Speaker: Cristina Garcia Fernandez (Profesora, Doctora en Economía,
Sección de Economía Aplicada. Facultad de Ciencias Políticas y Sociología. Coordinadora del Máster EUROMED de la Facultad de Ciencias Políticas y el Euro - Mediterranean University Institute (EMUI))

Sponsors: RCCHU; Harvard University; Complutense University of Madrid.